FOOTBALL hooligans who might believe they have escaped justice almost one year on from the violence and disorder at the Scottish Cup Final have been warned they could still face arrest.

The team assigned to Operation Tonish are still carrying out a thorough investigation into incidents following the end of the Hibernian and Rangers match at Hampden Park on May 21 - and the detective, who is second in command, has promised there is more to come.

Detective Inspector Greig Wilkie said: "If we identify who you are and you were on that pitch causing violence or disorder – you will be getting arrested.

"I think people thought this investigation was maybe going to go away. But here we are 11 months down the line and it is not going away. "There was public outrage and rightly so of what took place in that short period of time after the Scottish Cup Final.

"We can't just say we will draw a line underneath it. We can' t be seen to be doing that and we are not going to do that."

The Evening Times was given exclusive access to the team of detectives who are working on this investigation at their base in Govan Police Station.

Rows of plain clothed detectives, who we can't identify because of the nature of the probe, could be seen scouring through hours of CCTV footage.

For these patient officers, a football fan punching another has become like a game of Where's Wally.

Their remit involves identifying every thing that fan did while on the pitch - and that means they have to scour through endless sources of media from broadcast, print and mobile phones.

And when you have one football fall punching another, trying to follow them through a crowd of hundreds of supporters with simultaneous assaults happening is almost impossible.

With the task not an easy one, you understand why this probe is almost approaching its one year anniversary.

DI Wilkie said: "The vast majority of the work is CCTV based. We had to grab and secure as much as we could.

"Once we grabbed it all, we put a system in place for it to be reviewed. Because of the volume of footage, it has taken us months."

He added: "When we identify an act of violence or disorder, that is when the work really starts.

"We have to follow that person through every bit of media footage to get a full course of conduct of what they did.

"That is just one person, multiply that by every individual we identify who is involved in this enquiry on that specific day, and it shows you the massive amount of investigation which has to be done."

A key component of this investigation has been the release of hundreds of 'mugshots' over the months after the final.

Even the process of getting those images out to the media is an exhaustive one for the team on Operation Tonish.

They have to prove that they have done everything possible to identify that person, and then produce a report showing that to the Crown Office and Prosecution Service.

Once the Crown Office and Prosecution Service is satisfied everything has been done to identify that person, they approve the release of that image to the media.

DI Wilkie said: "By the time we get the image out on the public domain, we have tried everything up to that point. It is then for the public to assist us."

The team, however, have been successful with over 150 people arrested to date, who are currently all going through the prosecution service at the moment.

Those people were identified through a variety of methods. Some of them handed themselves into police stations while others have been identified through the release of CCTV.

Many of those people were arrested through operations including dawn raids.

The Evening Times reported last week that the team's 16th operation had taken place with dawn raids at properties in Glasgow, Ayrshire, Haddington, Musselburgh and Livingston resulting in five arrests.

We have also reported on many of the prosecutions at Glasgow Sheriff Court with a Football Banning Order often featuring in the punishment for many cases. There has been some tough sentences handed out including a four year Football Banning Order in one case.

DI Wilkie said: "Two or three minutes of madness on a football pitch has ended up costing them."

DI Wilkie believes that the investigation would have never reached this stage if it wasn't for the professionalism shown by the team of detectives who were picked to be part of it.

He said: "It is through their hard work that it has got to this stage. There is no doubt about it.

"You can't underestimate the work they have done to get as far as we have with this investigation.

"They have maintained that drive and determination to get as far as we have got now, and 11 months later, we are still going."